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Thursday, June 11

A 48-Hour Reprieve

These are pictures from my weekend
in which I visited the Washington and Oregon coasts with my sisters and mother—three
of my favorite people.

We don’t get to spend enough time
together—just the four of us. Even our tea dates have ceased to be the four of
us as my daughters have joined and now we are six.

In the last couple of years, Mom has
acquired herself a new man. And while we’re thrilled that she’s in loooove and
happy, we miss the woman she once was.

When did she become a super-sports fan? “Oh,
I have always loved basketball.”

Yeah, we were in the same house as you and the
only time you watched a basketball game was when the Blazers were in the
championship series—circa 1977.

She’s set aside her strong network
of friends that she and my dad had—the men and women who got her through Dad’s
death. I don’t think it’s a deliberate thing—it’s just when one person becomes
your life, you cocoon yourself into theirs.

As a writer, it’s been interesting
to watch the metamorphis of this woman and it’s made me wonder about the
sliding doors in my past. What if I hadn’t married Mike? Who and where would I
be right now? Would I like that person? Would I even be a mother?

I know that we become different
people based on the friends and loved ones who surround us and inspire us. A
few summers ago, I was quite active with my group of friends and I was a
different person with them than I am now. I think this is part of the human
condition. But, as a writer, it’s a character analysis.

My WIP is about a woman who reopens
a sliding door from her past and steps through it—ten years later. Can you go
back? Should you go back? Those are a couple of the questions she has to ask
herself. And if you go back, will everything be the same or has too much time
passed for the feelings to be the same? And will HE be the same—he’s also had
ten years of life without her, so how has he changed?

These are the thoughts rattling
through my head at 7:15 this morning. What’s on your mind?

6 comments:

Great post, Margie! Those are the questions I had to ask when I wrote Once More From the Top--how had the past 16 years changed Liam and Carrie and was it realistic to believe their passion might survive? It's a great question! They changed...but the passion is still there, only now it's different--more grown-up, more real, more honest... just some thoughts!

Great post, Margie! I've wondered who I'd be if I'd never met RadioMan, and what if we didn't move here...would we have bebe? Would we have other children? I read a Jude Deveraux book once that had that theme - 3 friends got to try out their 'what if'...